How do I Remove Duplicate Messages in Thunderbird?

Robert Kurt ~ Published: 08-Mar-2022 ~ Thunderbird ~ 6 Minutes Reading

Overview: In this blog post we are going to discuss about how to eliminate duplicate emails in Thunderbird. Read the complete blog and stay tuned with us for more information.

We all know that Thunderbird is a free, reliable, and open-source email application provided by the Mozilla foundation. Thunderbird is a trusted email client used by many large and small. It sometimes makes a copy of constantly email, which will increase the size of the mailbox and will occupy large storage space as well. Here in this article, I will show you an easy way to remove duplicate emails from the Mozilla Thunderbird account.

What are the reasons of deleting duplicate emails in Thunderbird?

There are certain reasons of eliminating duplicate emails from Thunderbird account. Some of the reasons are mentioned below:

Duplicate emails occupy a lot of storage data. Due to which user may have to face storage related issues in future.
Having multiple duplicate emails can create confusion in users mind at the time of sending or using those emails.
It does not look professional if user has duplicate emails in their account. So, it is better to eliminate them.

But what are the possibilities due to which users have to face this issue. There are certain errors which are the reason behind this issue. Some of the errors are:

Server related issues: Due to some issues in servers, user may face irrelevant issues. And it will constantly download the same mail again and again.
Mistake on sender’s behalf: One more possibility of getting duplicate emails is that, if senders sent mails multiple times, then also receiver will have to face this issue.
Accidental activities from User’s side: If Thunderbird has more than one subfolder and user is copying mail to various directories. Then it can create issue for them.

These are some common possibilities of getting duplicate emails in the Mozilla Thunderbird account. For solving this issue, it is necessary for the user to eliminate or delete duplicate emails in the Thunderbird account.

Let’s understand the issues from some user’s queries

User Query 1: Hi! I am using the Thunderbird application for the past 5 years. A few days ago, I have faced some server-related issues. Due to which now I have multiple duplicate emails in my mail account. I have to delete the duplicate ones. But don’t have any idea about this procedure. Kindly help me out with this issue and suggest the best solution for performing this task as soon as possible. Thanks in advance.

– Cathhena, New York

User Query 2: Hello! I am Adelina, working in an IT organization. Recently, I started facing storage-related issues in my Mozilla Thunderbird account. Then I found out that my mailbox is filled with many duplicate emails. Due to these duplicate emails, I am out of storage now. Can anyone please help me in suggesting a solution for solving this issue? Thanks!!

– Adelina, Australia

Plug-ins can be helpful in performing this task. Let’s have a look at the complete procedure.

How to remove duplicate emails in the Thunderbird account – Steps

User will have to follow these below – mentioned steps for completing this procedure:

First, user have to open Mozilla Thunderbird application
Then, go the tools menu and then select add-ons from the drop list.
Add-on tab will open, then search the remove duplicates and click on the hit search button.
User will then find remove duplicate message add-on. Then click on the install button.
After successfully installing the add-on. Click on restart button.
After Thunderbird restarts, follow STEP 3 again. Search for remove duplicate and hit on entering button.
Thereafter, the user has to go on the My add-ons section.
After that, go to the account and right-click on the mailbox folder from where a user wants to delete the duplicate emails.
Finally, choose the remove duplicate message option.
If the selected folder does not contain any duplicate emails, it will show a pop–up message of not finding any duplicates. Click on OK to exit.
If the folder contains duplicate emails, it will open the duplicate message window showing the total number of emails held by the folder and the number of duplicates emails that were deleted.
Then, click on the delete selected button to remove the duplicate message from Thunderbird.
Finally, the user will get a message to confirm to delete the selected messages. Hit on the OK button.

What kind of issues users may face while using this method?

By using plug-ins users may face different kinds of issues that can create issues for them. There is a possibility that instead of deleting the duplicate ones, the user may end up deleting all the emails. Due to which they will have to face a data loss scenario.

To avoid this issue user can go with the backup option. After all, the user will not be able to get back the emails after deleting them.
Users cannot delete emails without checking them more than once. So, to ensure its security it is better to get a backup of emails before deleting them. The backup will help the user to get the emails back if the user needed them in the future.

So, for taking backup use can take the help of 4n6 Email Forensics Application. It will help users in performing this task in the best possible way.

Final Words

In the above blog post we have briefly discussed how to eliminate duplicate emails in the Thunderbird account. There are many users who were facing issues at the time of performing this task. Here, we have mentioned the best solution for users in this informative blog post.

Because of plugins users may face issues like data loss scenarios, etc. So, it is best to take a backup of emails before eliminating duplicate emails from the Thunderbird account. We hope after reading this blog users will be able to complete this task without facing any trouble.

Related Blog

User can also have a look on this blog for deleting emails from Gmail email account.